


les amis in a collection of pictures

by loopid



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Photography, Les Amis de l'ABC - Freeform, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-08-30 22:45:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 4,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8552338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loopid/pseuds/loopid
Summary: unedited drabbles about our favorite barricade boys (and girls!) based on some nice pictures that I found on pinterest. *CURRENTLY EDITING*





	1. intro

hello internet! this is basically just a bunch of stories about les amis based on some nice pictures I found in Pinterest. I did these for nanowrimo 2016, so there will be a lot of repeated words because I am a cheater. I did not edit these, and literally the only reason I'm posting this is so that I can organize my nanowrimo draft into chapters and whatnot. so, enjoy!

also, I recommend clicking that "entire work" button up there :)

 

* * *

 

how to read the table of contents:

TITLE  
subject(s) of the picture + photographer + approximate time picture was taken.

SIZE  
S = chapter length is a less than 100 words.  
M = chapter length is about 100 - 200 words.  
L = chapter length is about 300 - 500 words.  
XL = chapter length is about 500 - 1000 words.  
XXL = chapter length is 1000+ words.

SERIES  
if there is no series, the chapter is a one-shot. if there is a series, there will be a short abbreviation (no spoilers!) and the series number.

 

* * *

 

heads up - this work contains lots of pictures, so just in case your laptop / phone crashes because of the picture overload, you were warned xD

also, I made a playlist for this work on spotify (because I was procrastinating writing this). here's the link -  
https://open.spotify.com/user/lyzzyawesomeness/playlist/30JDuNugLWdBxH9JbM3LLQ


	2. prologue

It's the summer before their last year of high school and Eponine and Grantaire are at the arcade, looking to have a bit of fun, spend a little money, go for some laser tag, play on those rigged arcade machines . . . and then Eponine wins at that stupid stack-the-cubes-on-top-of-each-other-without-dropping-them game and a shiny new camera falls out.

The rest is history.

 

 


	3. M (Eponine – by ‘Ferre) 10 PM

Eponine is a die-hard fan of bands. Usually it’s rock or alternative music, but once in a while she goes to classical concerts or musicals. Most of the time, she drags Grantaire along with her when there’s a concert in town, because Grantaire’s and Eponine’s musical tastes are relatively similar. Sometimes when she’s annoyed with Grantaire, or when she’s setting Grantaire up with Enjolras, she takes Cosette and Musichetta with her. However, this particular night, Grantaire is out with Enjolras, Cosette’s in France with her dad, and Musichetta’s with Joly in the hospital. So she takes Combeferre to a Green Day concert. This is funny because Combeferre’s favorite music genre is – surprise, surprise – songs that have absolutely no drums, or guitars, or singing. In other words, Green Day is the exact opposite of what he wants to listen to. But, as the most awesomest boyfriend (Courfeyrac’s words, not his), he agrees to spend one night with Eponine at her loud concert. And of course he brings his camera – the lighting would be superb, and he really wants to get some good shots. Combeferre takes a lot of pictures. He likes going through them and saving his favorites, and putting all the other ones on his hard drive. His favorite shot is after the concert, when Eponine’s fangirling all over the place. He likes how it blurs, but still shows how giddy Eponine is. Above all, he likes the youthfulness of it.

  


	4. M (Marius, Cosette – by Eponine) 8 PM

Christmas parties are always the best. Courfeyrac usually takes it upon himself to organize all of it. Combeferre takes Courf’s ideas and plans them out. He figures out where it will be held, how the food will come, and makes sure Courf’s ideas don’t go to waste. Enjolras usually sits back on this one, letting his second- and third- in command work it all out. Besides, Enjolras would rather organize a fundraiser than a party. Jehan helps Courf by contacting everyone and the girls are usually the ones on décor. Courf likes holding it at his parents’ house, because it’s big, and because his parents love his friends. Sometimes, the Amis can’t make it for Christmas, so they schedule it for December 31st. Back then, the only couple going steady was Cosette and Marius. That was the beginning of the camera era, and it all starts when Eponine takes a photo of Marius kissing Cosette on New Year’s Eve.

 

 


	5. M (Cosette – by Marius) 9 AM

  The Amis travel a lot. They go to France, once, and Cosette and Enjolras are absolutely ecstatic. Cosette wants to shop all day, and Enjolras wants to go to every museum related to the French Revolution. So they split up. Half of them go to the museums with Enjolras, and the other half goes shopping with Cosette. This time, Cosette gets the bigger company. Marius, Eponine, Jehan, Courfeyrac, Bossuet, Bahorel, and Musichetta go with Cosette. Only Combeferre, Joly, and Feuilly go to the museums with Enjolras. When they parted ways, Courfeyrac had yelled, “Nerds!” at them, and Joly had yelled, “Thanks, man!” because Joly is a huge nerd. Unsurprisingly, Combeferre had yelled back, “Merci beaucoup, mon cheri!” in perfect French, because Combeferre was also a nerd, and a bigger nerd than Joly, even. But Marius, who had the camera, hadn’t heard their exchange, because he’d just gotten an awesome shot of Cosette decked out in French fashion.

 

 


	6. M (Eponine – by Gran) 5 PM

   When Eponine was younger, she used to climb trees when she was angry. When Eponine’s older, she climbs roofs when she’s angry. Sometimes she has to be alone. Sometimes she needs to get away from life. When she’s alone, she can think clearly, and muddle her way through her messy thoughts. She can calm herself, and think her way out. When Grantaire gets home, and he doesn’t find Eponine, he doesn’t panic. He knows that she’s on the roof. If she’s not, then he’ll panic. He’s not her best friend for nothing. But usually, she is, and Grantaire had gotten a shot of her on a cloudy April day, under grey skies and the bleak fog.

 

 

 


	7. M (Marius, ‘Ferre, Eponine, Grantaire – by Joly) 4 PM

   Sometimes Joly uses ‘Chetta’s camera. She’s at a lecture, and most of the others aren’t, so Joly goes to find them. He finds Marius and Grantaire playing chess in the library. Behind them, Combeferre and Eponine were yelling at them about how illogical their strategies were. Joly thinks Combeferre is in full rant mode. Courfeyrac sometimes calls his best friend a robot, and right now, Joly can’t help but see the resemblances. Eponine is more like Gordon Ramsay. She’s insulting Grantaire and picking apart his strategy simultaneously. Somehow, she even manages to integrate helpful tips into her roast. None of them realize that Marius and Grantaire aren’t listening, and the only person who notices Joly’s arrival is Marius, who sends him a cheeky grin as Joly takes the picture.

 

 


	8. M (Eponine – by Gran) 6 PM

   Grantaire takes Eponine out to the closest restaurant he can find, which, sadly, is not the Musain. But he knows Eponine, and he knows when she needs a cold snack. Guess who’s too cheap to buy a smoothie blender? You got it – Grantaire. Guess who’s too broke to buy ice cream? You got it – Grantaire, again. So he wordlessly drags her into his car somehow, and they plunk themselves down on a small booth near the window. He gets a strawberry smoothie for her, because it’s her favorite, and a chocolate smoothie for him, because it’s the cheapest smoothie on the menu. Eponine sighs, and stirs her smoothie for a while. Grantaire finally takes out his camera and snaps a picture.

 

 


	9. M (Cosette – by Eponine) 12 midnight

   Clubs are Cosette’s favorite thing, second only to shopping, maybe. Cosette can fit right in with any crew, and she takes Eponine with her. Cosette’s dance moves get the boys to drool all over her, and she knows enough self-defense to get away from whoever gets too close for her liking. She also never gets with anyone except Marius, who usually just stays at the bar and prays no girl will talk to him because even adorably awkward has its downsides. Besides, Marius trusts her fully, and Cosette isn’t one of those girls who throw away their boyfriends. When Cosette goes out, Eponine usually comes, and she brings Grantaire along because she can get drunk with him and not care because he’s Eponine’s Best Friend™. Marius is the designated driver when this happens. He and Cosette lead a stumbling Grantaire out, while Eponine leans on Cosette. But for some reason, Eponine can still take pictures when she’s hella drunk, and that’s how the picture of an unbearably happy Cosette came to be.

 

 


	10. M (Eponine, Combeferre – by Grantaire) 4 PM

   Eponine isn’t really a prankster, she just makes the most out of every situation. And when Combeferre literally passes out on the sofa while studying a Big Important Project, she can’t resist. Earlier that day, she’d called Grantaire and Cosette to come over and help with cooking. Cosette, naturally, arrives before Grantaire. She sees Combeferre on the couch, puts two and two together, and tells Eponine to draw something, only moments before Grantaire arrives. And when he does, and sees Eponine drawing a cat on the usually serious Combeferre, he can’t help but take a picture. Cosette says he should save it for blackmail, but he can only wait so long before he sends in the Amis’ group chat.

 

 


	11. M (Joly – by ‘Chetta) 5:30 PM

Joly, Bossuet, and Musichetta enjoy walks around the campus. Joly comes because he can think, Bossuet comes because he can chill out with his soulmates (it’s also less likely for him to be hit by a car – like, seriously, Musichetta can’t believe all the close calls he had with passing vehicles, but it’s a miracle he’s alive), and Musichetta comes because the scenery is stunning. This particular picture had been taken on the first month back to school. Joly had his new school outfit and backpack and the evening sky was nice and purple and oh so aesthetic, and the streetlights, their symmetry, symbolism– Musichetta loves it. She pulls out her camera, and Bossuet helps her position Joly in the perfect place so that Musichetta’s picture comes out nice. And boy does it.

 

 


	12. XL (Courf – by Combeferre) @Musain – 6 AM

Combeferre prides himself on his ability to stay up late and wake up early. Courfeyrac says ‘Ferre is magic. Enjolras envies his second in command. Enjolras is the kind of person who absolutely can’t stop working, to the point where sometimes Combeferre has to carry him to bed, lest he pull a double all-nighter. It’s happened more than once.

On this particular occasion, Enjolras had organized an event about racism. Several complications lead to Enjolras having to get all the Amis together at the last minute to rework their plans. Cosette had brought her stash of tea, and Enjolras had assigned Bahorel to be the coffee runner. It wasn’t because Bahorel wasn’t good enough to actually help plan the event, it was just that Bahorel’s part had already been worked out fine, and Enjolras knew they would need all of Bahorel’s strength to run to the coffee store and back all night. What’s even funnier is that Enjolras won’t buy a coffee machine, even though he pretty much lives on coffee. He argues that he could be doing something more important than waiting for a coffee machine. Grantaire’s excuse is that they’re too cheap to buy one.

So, as Bahorel ran in and out with the coffee, Enjolras and his bleary-eyed troupe discuss the events for tomorrow. Luckily for Combeferre, his part was like Bahorel’s – already thought of, and with no complications. He made himself the mom of the group, taking Bahorel’s coffees, replacing them with the finished ones, and cleaning up. Enjolras went through at least ten in an hour. Combeferre gives up on Enjolras and refills his cups with fruit juice instead. Cosette had had the good sense to bring her tea machine, too, so Combeferre takes care of that for her.

Midnight passes, and Combeferre politely reminds the Amis that the event would be starting at nine, and they had to arrive at seven to start decorating and prepping and sound checking. At the two AM mark, Courfeyrac and Jehan fall asleep on each other. Combeferre, with Grantaire’s help, moves them onto a spare blanket laid out on the floor.

Around three AM, Eponine nods off. Combeferre places her next to Jehan. Thirty minutes later, Marius is fast asleep with Cosette in his lap. At this point, Bahorel is done, having bought probably a hundred bucks ‘worth of coffee, and he and Feuilly drive Joly, Bossuet, and Musichetta home.

At four in the morning, Enjolras looks drunk and ready to pass out. His notebook is filled with messy scribbles. Combeferre had had enough classes with him to know that that was Enjolras’ sleepy handwriting, and would not be legible once he woke up. Somehow, Grantaire is still awake, but barely. Combeferre himself is tiring, too. Enjolras starts nodding off, and Combeferre seizes his chance. He and Grantaire carry Enjolras back into Grantaire’s room. With a yawn, Grantaire thanks Combeferre and tells him he’s welcome to sleep in Enjolras’ room. Combeferre starts to decline, but Grantaire doesn’t have any of it. He pushes Combeferre to Enjolras’ bed, which is immaculately tidy, for some reason. Combeferre starts drearily wondering why, when he remembers how a month ago, he’d forced Enjolras to clean up his room and had done his bed for him. Enjolras hasn’t slept in his own bed in over a month.

That kid needed to take a chill pill.

Combeferre puts that in his mental Official Mom of Les Amis agenda. He’s about to fall asleep when the door creaks open, and Grantaire whispers, “Sorry, man. I just needed to let you know that Enjolras has to talk to Courf tomorrow morning and he wants you to get him up early.”

   “Fine, okay, thanks for telling me, Grantaire. Good night.”

   He drifts off to sleep not even five seconds after that exchange.

      The following day, Combeferre drags himself out of bed. It’s past five AM. The sky is getting lighter, but it’s still dark enough that he needs to turn on the lamp. To his surprise, Eponine and Grantaire are already up in the kitchen, making breakfast.

   Combeferre looks at them stupidly. “Why?” he says. His mind doesn’t register his lack of a greeting.

   Eponine yawns. “Big day today, remember? I’ve already texted ‘Chetta to get her butt over here in thirty minutes. Grantaire and I are gonna force feed you enough food to get you through an entire weekend.”

   Combeferre stares at Grantaire bleakly.

   “Don’t worry, ‘Ferre. I won’t burn the pancakes or the waffles or anything. I’m just up because Enjolras is working his butt off and he needs all the help he can get.”

   “How nice of you,” Combeferre says, sinking into a dining chair.

   Eponine plunks herself next to him. “I’m surprised Enjolras even has pancake mix.”

   “Probably Grantaire’s doing,” Combeferre replies thoughtlessly.

   “Anyways, didn’t Enjy want you to wake Courf up or something?”

   Right. Combeferre nods. “I’ll get him.” He can feel himself nodding off. “Soon,” he mumbles and suddenly there’s a scream in his ear and he jumps.

   Eponine has an air horn.

   “I hate you,” he says.

   “Go wake up Courf and I won’t do it again,” says Eponine cheekily.

   “I hate you,” he says again, because he doesn’t like cursing. He goes out to the hallway, and kicks Courf’s sleeping form. There’s no response. Courf can sleep through anything. Except...

   Combeferre finds Eponine and wrestles her air horn out of her grip. He goes back to Courfeyrac, and blows the air horn.

   Courf jumps up, sees Combeferre and his slash Eponine’s air horn, and starts yelling expletives at Combeferre.

   About an hour later, Combeferre and the Amis are in the Musain. Combeferre sits nest next to Courfeyrac, proofreading his speech. Courfeyrac looks absolutely spent. He has a fresh cup of coffee in one hand, and he rests his face in the other. Combeferre snaps a picture because the lighting is nice.

 

 


	13. XL (Eponine – by Combeferre) - 3 PM

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eponine reading ‘Ferre’s books after he moves in

   Combeferre moves in to Eponine’s place so that Grantaire can stay with Enjolras. Grantaire’s move is completely uneventful. Two trips by him and Bahorel and Feuilly in and out of his old apartment is all it takes for all his belongings to be crammed into the back of Bahorel’s van. Combeferre, however, takes much longer.

In typical Combeferre fashion, he has to completely reorganize and clean his room before he can even begin to strip it down. He has to take down all his notes and sheets taped on the wall and on cork boards. Then he has to organize them neatly into boxes, and discard the old notes. That takes about a day, because Combeferre’s entire wall is covered in papers.

After that, he has to clean under his bed, which hides even more papers. His clothes and bedding take less than an hour. Then he has to take care of all his electronic devices, which means untangling the inevitably tangled wires. He puts those into a next box, everything all nice and labeled.

Finally, he forces himself to look at his bookshelf. Despite all of his books being – surprise, surprise – very organized, he has to figure out how to take them down and reorganize them at Eponine’s in the same way. He takes down all his books very carefully, and arranges them very carefully in boxes, which he then stacks very carefully on top of each other.

He and Enjolras finally carry all the boxes downstairs. Combeferre takes great care to make sure Enjolras doesn’t touch his book boxes. Enjolras notices, but doesn’t comment on it. At least he understands that Combeferre’s books are as precious to him as Enjolras’ speeches and battle plans. He very carefully carries all his book boxes down into the lobby.

Once all the boxes are cleared and Combeferre’s room is empty, Bahorel and Grantaire lug Grantaire’s stuff upstairs. That takes about an hour, which Combeferre waits out by making sure nobody touches his books.

Finally, Combeferre, Grantaire, and Bahorel load up the latter’s van again, this time with Combeferre’s belongings. They drive up to Eponine’s place. She’s out for two days, so Grantaire unlocks the door for the last time, and they bring Combeferre’s stuff up.

Very carefully, Combeferre brings his books up, which takes triple the time Grantaire and Bahorel needed to bring Combeferre’s other boxes up. Once they finish, Combeferre thanks them for their help, Grantaire entrusts Combeferre with his own apartment keys, and they depart.

Combeferre starts redecorating his new room with his bed sheets, and then he organizes all his clothes in Grantaire’s old closet. ‘Ferre has to admit, for someone like Grantaire, he’s done a nice job of cleaning the place up. Combeferre knows Grantaire isn’t as careless as a stranger would think, but he couldn’t honestly expect this from Grantaire until now. Grantaire’s old room is now stark white, and the only trace of him left, Combeferre finds, is a lone half drunk bottle of wine in the back of a cupboard, which was probably overlooked, and a few paint streaks on the living room wall.

There’s an empty area where Grantaire’s old personal art studio was. It feels a bit nostalgic, but Combeferre likes the fresh new start. On that thought, Combeferre finishes organizing his clothes, and goes on to his desk and electronics. He finds that Grantaire’s room is a bit smaller than Combeferre’s, but he decides to fill up Grantaire’s empty spot in the living room with his own office. He works on that for a while, tidying up, installing extension cords, making sure all the devices are plugged in, and even puts up one of his insanely useful cork boards to cover up a particularly nasty spot of brown paint.

After that’s done, he stops for dinner and has a phone call with Eponine, explaining to her in detail about how he essentially revamped her apartment. Eponine tells him she won’t be back until the next day. She’s on a trip with Cosette somewhere in Los Angeles, and their plane is cancelled for some reason. Then he gets back to work, putting up all his papers and notes and re-taping them to the walls in his bedroom. By then, it’s quite late. He starts carefully taking out his books and placing them on Eponine’s dining table, in their organized order. He goes to bed feeling satisfied.

   Combeferre wakes up at 7, as usual. First thing he does is check his phone. There’s a message there from Eponine telling him she’ll be at the apartment in about an hour, maybe two. He goes back to sleep.

   Next thing he knows, it’s three in the afternoon and he’s so disoriented he has to take a few minutes to regain his balance. He’s wondering why Grantaire’s room has so many notes – his notes – on the walls, when it hits him and he remembers. He bursts out of bed, puts on a random shirt – the closest one in his closet – and tries to find Eponine. He notices her camera resting on a table. It’s probably full of fresh photos from Los Angeles. He takes it, so he can as Eponine to show him the photos one by one.

   He finally finds her in the dining room, reading a book from one of his piles. She hasn’t noticed him yet. Instinctively, he panics inside, because those are HIS BOOKS. But Eponine looks quite nice and content reading the book, and the afternoon light is pretty. She only turns around when she hears the shutter click.

    First thing Combeferre does is hug her. Then he says, “Did you just _touch my freaking books_?” because Combeferre doesn’t like swearing.

   (To which Eponine replies, “Yes, I did just touch your freaking books. Did you just _take a freaking picture of me_?”)

 

 

 


	14. L (Marius – by Cosette) 4:30 PM

   Cosette remembers that time when Grantaire tried to give everyone guitar lessons. Joly and Bossuet signed up because Musichetta could play it (badly), and they wanted to beat her up in guitar talent. Enjolras had signed up because he could use Grantaire’s guitar. Cosette couldn’t even guess why someone would want to use their boyfriend’s guitar that badly, but with Enjolras and Grantaire, it was the type of thing you’d expect. Knowing them, it was probably some sort of inside joke, perhaps a dare from Grantaire. Bahorel had signed up for craps and giggles. He didn’t even own a guitar. And finally, there was Marius, who’d signed up wanting to really learn guitar because his father had passed when he was young and he’d played the guitar. Marius still has it.

   The guitar lesson was to start at three and end around four, half past four at the latest. Cosette was taking the car to go shopping with Musichetta, so Marius was supposed to text her when the lesson would end. An hour and a half later, Cosette and Musichetta were driving towards the Musain to pick Marius up. The parking lane is crowded, so Cosette walks out to pick her boyfriend up. She finds Marius very attentively trying to pluck out what sounds like Mary Had a Little Lamb, although Cosette can’t be sure, because to be honest, Marius is horrible at it. He’s almost as clumsy as Bossuet – Cosette hopes the latter hasn’t broken any guitar strings during Grantaire’s lesson, or even worse, an actual guitar  - and that why Marius doesn’t play any instruments yet. For some reason he’s also sitting outside. Cosette snaps a quick candid photo before saying, “Hey.”

   Marius jumps. “Woah, Cosette, you scared me.”

   “What are you doing outside?”

   Marius sighs. “They kicked me out because I was really bad.”

   Cosette laughs. “You’re not serious.”

   “Hey, I’m sitting out here in the cold – “

   “It’s literally April, Marius – “

   “And I’m freezing my fingers off! This is serious!” he finishes indignantly.

   “Goodness me,” Cosette says, squeezing past him. “I’m gonna go talk to them.”

   It turns out that Grantaire had sent Marius out to practice because Enjolras was a nightmare with instruments and therefore required further instruction, Bahorel wasn’t much help either, and Bossuet had broken a string – surprise, surprise – and Joly was near panicking while Grantaire tried to fix it. Basically, as bad as Marius sounded, the others were worse. How classic.

 

 


	15. M (Joly, Feuilly, Ep, ‘Ferre – by Gran) 3:30 PM

Of course the first thing Courfeyrac does when he’s on a hill overlooking some mountains is sing, “THE HILLLLLS ARE ALIIIIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC!” really loudly and obnoxiously. And because Grantaire is a little crap, he joins in singing All Star by Smash Mouth an octave higher. Eponine turns towards Grantaire and glares at him murderously. Combeferre lies next to her, with his sunglasses on, and probably either drifts off to sleep, or thinks about his next project. Bossuet lies down near Combeferre, and Feuilly sits next to him. Abruptly, Grantaire stops singing. Eponine turns back around. The camera shutter goes off. Eponine chases him down the hill. It’s a fun day.

 

 


End file.
